Revised Elderly People's Welfare Law Goes into Effect

　　A revised version of the elderly people's welfare law is now in effect in China.

 

　　As CRI's Su Yi reports, it forces the families of elderly people to regularly visit and care for them.

 

　　The revised Law for the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly has already begun to trigger wide-spread debate as to whether it's appropriate for the government to meddle¹ in families personal affairs.

 

　　Others point out many elderly people here in China are in dire² need of more support and care.

 

　　As of last year, elderly people who are living separately from their younger families surpassed 62 million here in China.

 

　　This means 1 in 3 seniors here in China live apart from their family.

 

　　Dang Junwu is the deputy dean at the Institute of China Aging Populations Studies.

 

　　"Senior citizens have needs to be taken care of. Attention from society is very important, but what they most crave³ is the love and care from their family. From a legislative⁴ point of view, it is necessary to provide legal support to what we see as a great social need."

 

　　Such ideas are considered more understandable in a country which has a massive floating population of young people looking for work.

 

　　The new law does take this into effect, giving relief for migrant workers who don't have the means to visit their elderly parents more often.

 

　　Zuo Xuejin is the President of the Gerontological Society of Shanghai.

 

　　"More visits from the family members call for more policy support from the government. Ideally, the government should facilitate by giving more freedom to those migrant workers in terms of their labor⁵ mobility⁶ and their housing rights in cities. But to start with, they should at least be given more leave to be able to make those visits back home."

 

　　The revised law also requires employers to ensure employees whose parents live far away to have up to 20 days of paid home leave.

 

　　Aside from making it a requirement for children to make more visits home, the law also gives more guarantees to the rights and protection of parents who already live with family members.

 

　　Under the new law, domestic abuse of elderly people and deliberate ignorance will come with stronger punishment.

 

　　As of the end of 2011, there were 185 million people at or above the age of 60, which is just under 14-percent of the country's total population.

 

　　For CRI, I'm Su Yi.

1 meddle   

v.干预，干涉，插手

参考例句：

• I hope he doesn't try to meddle in my affairs.我希望他不来干预我的事情。
• Do not meddle in things that do not concern you.别参与和自己无关的事。

2 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

3 crave   

vt.渴望得到，迫切需要，恳求，请求

参考例句：

• Many young children crave attention.许多小孩子渴望得到关心。
• You may be craving for some fresh air.你可能很想呼吸呼吸新鲜空气。

4 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。